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The Secret Eaters
The Secret Eaters is a story by Zombiejiger. Dramatis Personae *'Ariel Nerro': Sergeant and head guard. *'Joshua Soren': Captain of the Daryus. *'Daniel Jacobs': Corporal and guard. *'Brent Anderson': Technician. *'Cryptovore': Lovecraftian machine. Chapter I - The Transmission ''Location: Cargo Transport Daryus.'' ''Destination: Znalost, “The Library Planet.”'' ''Cargo: The 30L4S Planetary Mainframe.'' The Daryus cruised through deep space on autopilot. An ungainly craft, the cargo transport resembled a silver brick with beveled edges and the front cut down to angle inwards. Six massive cylinders mounted on the sides, connected by oversized maglocks. Pipes ran down the belly of the ship and branched out along the sides to connect with the canisters. Four large engines emerged from the rear of the ship, emitting a blue glow against the stars. Most sentients in the galaxy would consider that sort of ship to be incredibly ugly, but especially the crews. Onboard, the vessel contains a crew of thirty in addition to space for approximately twenty-five passengers or guards. At the time of this mission, the Daryus contained a full crew and fifteen additional passengers consisting of ten guards and five technicians. For the first two-thirds the trip had been the normal, boring routine, but that soon changed. “How long till we arrive at the system’s biggest library?” Sergeant Ariel Nerro asked. She was a fit woman, dark with a regulation haircut and uniform. At her hip rested a standard-issue sonic rifle, specifically designed to cause the most damage to organics while not damaging the structural integrity of the ship. “Four more days, relative time,” Joshua Soren, the captain replied. He sat next to the sergeant, a balding older man wearing the distinctive blue/red captain’s uniform. Flipping a switch on the armrest of his chair, he keyed up a holographic display on the small projector hanging from the ceiling. A translucent version of the starmap filled the room, then zoomed in on the Daryus' location. “We’re here, and we’ll be at our destination in no time.” “That’s good. Guarding a computer is a rather humdrum job.” “I know how you feel,” the Soren nodded slowly. “I was a guard for the Forge. You’d think it’d come under fire at least once in three years, but nope. We were so heavily armed we erased all thought of attack.” “No offense, Captain, but I think that’d be more interesting than this assignment.” The captain laughed. “None taken! Even commanding this old tug gets a little tiring after a while.” The sergeant laughed. “Well, I’m going to head back and check on our cargo.” “You’re dismissed, then. Go break up the monotony.” Nerro grinned and made her way to the angular door. She selected a small knob and twisted it, leading the doors to slide open with barely a sound. The sergeant hurried down through the bowels of the ship. Along the way she passed members of the crew, giving a nod of recognition to each. Shortly she was in the cargo hold, where her second-in-command, Corporal Jacobs, gave her a salute. She gave it in turn, then relaxed. “At ease, Corporal. Anything to report?” “No Ma’am.” Jacobs said, giving his head a slight shake. “No saboteurs, hijackers or stowaways.” “Always a good thing.” Nerro replied. “Pardon me for asking, but what exactly is so special about this mainframe that we had to be sent here?” “The 30L4S has the power to send and receive information in milliseconds, all across the system. It’s the most advanced mainframe created to this day.” “Wow, sounds impressive! They really keep us grunts in the dark.” Jacobs gave a lopsided grin. Nerro smirked. “And officers as well. I guess this is low-clearance enough that I got the facts, even if the paper was only a paragraph…” Both guards laughed. Nerro slapped Jacobs on the shoulder. “I’m going to go check the cargo. We’ll discuss clearances later.” The sergeant walked on towards the forcefield generator in the middle of the hold. Stabilized by the barriers, a massive silver box rested in the center of the room. Nerro stepped up to a computer panel built into the generators and scrolled through the numbers that appeared on the screen. Everything was normal. She sighed. “Just as well, wouldn’t want to have to break out the technicians,” she muttered to herself. “Sergeant!” A voice called. The sergeant turned to the speaker. “Too late…” she said softly, as one of the technicians strode up to her. “Hello, Anderson.” Anderson smiled like a loon at her and motioned towards the mainframe. “Isn’t it just a wonder?” “Yeah, yeah it is.” Nerro disliked Anderson. His hair was longer than regulation length, he barely acknowledged rank and treated titles like a first name. And once he started talking about machines, he rarely stopped until he latched on to someone else. Nerro brought herself back to the present as she realized Anderson was speaking. “...so the mainframe is capable of holding all it can due to the-” “I’m sorry Anderson, but I have orders to fulfill. We’ll have to talk about this some other time.” “Right, right. Sorry.” The technician’s head bobbed and he walked up to the forcefield and stared at the device. Nerro shook her head and walked away as fast as she could without Anderson noticing. Not that he would, as he stood completely absorbed in the mainframe’s “beauty,” as he would call it. Everything was secure, so the sergeant decided to head to her quarters. She made it halfway down the hallway to them when a tiny red light the communications device on her wrist flashed. Nerro stopped and pressed the answer switch. “Sergeant Nerro here.” “This is Captain Soren. We’ve picked up a signal and I’d like you to check it out. Report to the bridge immediately.” “Yes, sir.” Nerro hurried up to the bridge. She practically burst through the door once she arrived, to find everyone on alert. “Sergeant Nerro, here as ordered,” she said briskly. “Thank you, Sergeant.” Soren nodded. “We picked up a repeating signal right before I called you. It’s beaming out from an unknown point in space, beyond the outposts. The strange thing is that it is incredibly concentrated and despite the distance is aimed directly at us.” The sergeant’s eyes narrowed. “Aimed at us? How precise is this signal?” “Incredibly,” the comms officer said from his position behind the captain. “As the captain said, it is following us and only us. It keeps repeating, a short burst and then it starts again.” “Can we hear it?” Nerro frowned. “Put it on.” Soren motioned towards the comms officer. “Yes sir,” the officer replied and set a dial on his console. After a few seconds, the transmission boomed over the speakers set into the bridge’s ceiling. A harsh static effect filled the room, a mass of grinding and chaotic sounds. Then an unearthly wail started to play, first one voice, then two, then ten, then hundreds. All screamed in unison for exactly one minute, then went silent. “What was-” Nerro started to ask, but was cut off by a sudden burst from the speakers. “01110111 01100101 00100000 01100110 01100101 01100101 01100100 00100000 01101111 01101110 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 01110010 00100000 01110011 01100101 01100011 01110010 01100101 01110100 01110011 00101110” The transmission stopped repeating and went dead. “What in the Rings of Xenon was that?” Soren shouted. “Binary, sir. I’m translating it now,” the comms officer replied. “Almost done.” He worked for a few more seconds while the rest of the crew and Nerro waited expectantly. “Got it.” The officer pressed a button, and the Daryus’s computer’s flat voice began to speak. “We feed on your secrets.” Chapter II - The Second “‘We feed on your secrets,’ what is that supposed to mean?” The systems officer asked the comm officer, a confused look on her face. The comm officer shrugged, just as lost. “It stopped repeating, Captain. No more broadcasts.” “See if you can trace it.” Soren replied absently, clearing thinking hard on the bizarre message. “Yes, sir.” “Captain, I suggest putting the ship on low alert for a time.” Nerro said slowly. “We don’t know the intentions of who- or whatever sent the transmission.” “Good idea, Sergeant. I’ll let you inform the crew. Comms, open a channel for her.” “Right away, sir,” the comm officer nodded curtly. “All yours, Sergeant.” Nerro slipped up to the console and pressed the switch the activate the shipwide speakers. She took a deep breath and began to speak. “Attention crew of the Daryus. This is Sergeant Ariel Nerro. We recently received a transmission from an unknown source that may or may not be hostile. As a result the ship will stand on low alert for the next twenty-four hours. Nerro out.” “Thank you.” Captain Soren smiled. “Hopefully this will end up being nothing, but it doesn’t hurt to be prepared. “No need to tell me twice. I’ll give more detailed instructions to my team.” “Go on.” Sergeant Nerro left the bridge once again, this time heading for the security meetinv room. She pressed a button on her communications device and sent a message to all members of the cargo’s guards. “Meet me in Security Planning immediately. Nerro out.” One by one the guards replied with affirmatives, and soon they were all gathered in the Security Planning room. The room had enough space for at least thirty down a stretched table. From outside the room was soundproofed, while inside a vocal amplifier was installed in order to provide better hearing to those away from the speaker. Nerro sat at the head of the table. To her right was Jacobs, then the remaining members. Keye, Richardson, Vell, Morgan, Candor, Louhimo, Dale, Nanda, Gellroem, West, and Thorpe. She glanced at the faces of her friends, assistants and allies. “I assume you all heard the announcement,” the sergeant said, gaining a series of nods in return. “The alert is the result of a direct transmission to our ship, us and only us. Due to the suspiciousness of this event, I’m setting the ship and everyone on it on edge.” “What was in the transmission?” Vell asked, his cybernetic eye gleaming. He had lost the original in a skirmish against Elaroon pirates who had boarded another ship he had been stationed on. The replacement always unnerved Nerro when she looked straight at it, its red glow resembling that of the photoreceptors of the war machines from the Civil War. Nerro had almost lost her life to one of those machines’ bladed legs after it ran out of ammunition and decided that crushing her would be the best option. “A chaotic scramble, then a cryptic message in binary.” “Could you play it?” Louhimo queried, tilting her head slightly to send her bleached hair down one shoulder. Nerro nodded and activated the computers in the room. She selected the list of transmissions and located the mystery signal. As before, the wailing filled the room before dissolving into the binary chatter. The rest of the guards seemed either confused or immediately began talking about it. The sergeant silenced them and began to speak. “The binary translates to ‘We feed on your secrets.” Nerro quoted. “Meaning unknown, sender unknown, purpose unknown.” “Absolutely no idea where it came from?” Morgan frowned. “Outside known space.” “''Outside known space?'' How-, I mean, perhaps it’s a new race! Maybe we’ve made first contact!” “Possibly. We are considering the options.” “What are the options? A new species, robots, probes, rebels or terrorists?” Thorpe, a particularly burly man, replied. “That message has got me worried. It certainly doesn’t sound friendly.” “It doesn’t. Well, that’s all. You’re dismissed.” Nerro gave a curt nod to the other guards, who filed out of the room one by one. The sergeant kicked back in her chair and sighed, thinking. After several quiet minutes she checked her watch. 11:53 PM, Earth Time. With another sigh, she pulled herself up from the chair, straightened her uniform and made her way to her quarters. The door opened automatically and Nerro walked into the darkened cabin, the lights flicking on automatically upon her entry. She hung her sonic weapon on a rack on the wall and locked the door. Soon she had readied and dropped onto her bed, exhausted. The sergeant was asleep not long afterwards. … Nerro awoke to the beeping of her communication device. She glanced at the clock by her bed. 4:17 AM. Groaning, she sat up and hit the the answer button. “Sergeant Nerro here.” “Captain Soren,” the captain replied, sounding equally tired. “There’s another transmission. Meet me on the bridge in five minutes.” “Yes, sir.” Suddenly wide awake, Nerro leapt from her bed and changed into a fresh uniform. She snatched her weapon from the wall and sprinted towards the bridge. By the time she arrived, the captain was already there with the night shift. The sergeant gave a salute and stepped up to Soren’s side. “What now?” “Another one. Play it.” Once again the wailing chorus played across the speakers, howling like a banshee in a tornado. It cut off. “''01010111 01100101 00100000 01100001 01110010 0110010100100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01100011 01110010 01111001 01110000 01110100 01101111 01110110 01101111 01110010 01100101 00101110''” “Translate it.” Soren snapped, his eyes narrowed. “On it, sir,” the comm officer replied, already typing away. He finished, and the computer spoke. “''We are the Cryptovore.''" Category:Zombiejiger Category:One Shots Category:Episodes